The only flaw in the Foley raised the ratings argument is that he had said the previous week on RAW that he would be back to his ordinary life after Badd Blood. Thus, that would mean he would not be on RAW this week. Also, I think they took at least a .2-.3 hit from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals the week before, but still its only the second time since the prediction of the TNN president that ratings would rise that they have gone over a 3.9. They had better build up the RAW ratings now though, because its down to 2 and a half months until Monday Night Football takes the usual 25% cut of the RAW audience, thus the lower the number going into football season means the lower the rating will be once the audience is siphoned off.
The ratings are still going way down overall. Let's not forget that we now consider a 4.1 to be a "bump" in the ratings when it's still less than RAW's average rating for 2001-2002. It's a trend that develops very slowly.
These are the best ratings WWE is probably going to see all year. There's only so many times they can play the "Flair un-retires!" "Foley un-retires!" "Kane unmasks!" card that they'll run out before too long and we'll be back to the normal grind that most viewers consider boring and uninspired.
"If you're asking if I would ever date a wrestler, certainly I would. However it wouldn't be good business for me to get romantically involved with anyone in any aspect of our business." -Stephanie McMahon (Off the Record, June 3rd, 1999)
Given past performance they will dip again. Barring a catastrophic fuck up (and all bets are off on that,) they're not going to get much lower than what they've been averaging. I think the ratings have settled.
My theory is that the "anomalies" can be attributed to to the swing audience. Let's say 3.5 is the core "We'll watch no matter what" audience. There's probably always going to be something good enough for this group to keep watching.
When they hit 4.1, the new viewers are people who want to still like wrestling but can't take the overall product these days.
I think at least some of those viewers wanted to see what happened with Goldberg. They wanted to see if he would move on to Triple H.
Next week's ratings might prove once and for all if Kane has any future as a draw.
Over 1400 posts and still never a Wiener of the Day!
Well you're in your little room and you're working on something good but if it's really good you're gonna need a bigger room and when you're in the bigger room you might not know what to do you might have to think of how you got started in your little room da da da
Originally posted by redsoxnation They had better build up the RAW ratings now though, because its down to 2 and a half months until Monday Night Football takes the usual 25% cut of the RAW audience, thus the lower the number going into football season means the lower the rating will be once the audience is siphoned off.
I did the MNF math. Two and a half months puts MNF starting in september. So i took June/July/August and compared them to September/October/November/December. There is a drop, but not nearly 25 percent. The drop was 10 percent last year and 12 the year before. In the last four years it has never been more than 15 percent and in 99 it was only 5 percent.
Your general point still stands, I'm just pointing out that the drop won't be very drastic. And if the quality of the product continues to improve, there may be minimal drop this year at all. Ratings are pretty stable these days.
I swear, Benoit has a magic touch: he made MVP look good at Wrestlemania, and he made the Miz look good today. This was the most entertaining Miz match I'd ever seen, and I normally switch the channel when he appears.